State Department can't deny visas based on Trump travel ban, judge rules

Source: Politico

A federal judge has ruled that the State Department cannot use President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban to deny visas to foreigners who apply for them.

The decision issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan applies only to 82 would-be immigrants and comes with a major caveat: It still allows immigration authorities to deny the foreign citizens entry to the U.S. by turning them away at a port of entry or instructing airline officials to refuse them boarding.

Sooknanan, a Biden appointee based in Washington, ruled that the federal law Trump invoked in June to limit entry to the U.S. by citizens of 19 countries does not give the State Department the power to deny visas.

Lawyers for the Trump administration asked Sooknanan to accept the “longstanding practice” of the State Department to refuse visas to people whose entry would be blocked by a presidential order.....

Last month, a federal judge in Seattle ruled that Trump’s latest travel ban could not be used to block refugees entitled to enter the U.S. as a result of previous orders in litigation challenging Trump’s suspension of refugee admissions. However, a federal appeals court put that ruling on hold a few days later.



Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/21/donald-trump-travel-ban-visas-ruling-00518166

Link to tweet